Mathieu van der Poel returned to racing in an impressive comeback. At the difficult World Cup cross race in Koksijde, Belgium, he showed a great performance and finished third. Sanne Cant perfectly completed this World Cup weekend by winning on STEVENS Super Prestige Canti. Not only was this victory that weekend's second one for Cant after winning an event of the Soudal Classics series in Hasselt, it also set Cant at the top of the World Cup's overall results.

Due to a double win in the junior category, Jens Dekker and Jappe Jaspers of Cant's team Enertherm-BKCP as well as Daan Hoeybergs' (BKCP-Corendon) second place in the U23 category, some more STEVENS Super Prestige Disc riders climbed onto the podium. Mathieu van der Poel said before the race that he wanted to finish among the top ten. To finish third behind Sven Nys, who won his 50. World Cup race, and this season's serial winner Wout van Aert on this hilly course, felt like a victory for the reigning World Champion who until recently had to pause and still has to get race-hardened again.

Van der Poel had suffered a knee injury when crashing at the Tour de l'Avenir in July and missed this season's first third. The unusually colourful special painting of van der Poel's Super Prestige applied for the World Cup start in Las Vegas shows that his team had been planning a completely different season. This weekend the special edition was one of the cross bikes van der Poel kept replacing during the race, which was regularly necessary considering the deep mudd.

After a good start Mathieu van der Poel immediately rode to the front behind Laurens Sweek of ERA-Murprotec and managed to stay in the leading group. The hilly, partly sandy, partly muddy course made it difficult to break away. Virtually every mistake caused a change in the lead. Sven Nys had observed the first rounds from further behind, but then started making his way to the front.

Halfway through the race Nys (39) and Wout van Aert (21) managed to break away after all and had set one minute between themselves and their followers when they hit the finishline. The experienced Sven Nys was able to break away as late as in the last bend after letting van Aert go first which was tactically clever of Nys and energy-snapping for van Aert. Van der Poel had to slow down for some time during the race in order to save power and fell back to 11th position. But he soon recovered and won the chasing group's battle for the remaining podium place despite some favorites riding in it. Laurens Sweeck of ERA-Murprotec rode a great race and finished fifth, his teammate Julien Taramarcaz finished tenth.
You can watch the race on the UCI's Youtube channel

Double victory and overall lead for Sanne Cant
Sanne Cant did not catch a good start in Koksijde and went onto the course on eighth position. On the first sandy passage she showed her class, however, rode her own track and overtook all in all four other riders by doing so. In the second half of the race she managed to stay at least ten seconds ahead of Nikki Harris and Katherine Compton.

On the home stretch she had enough time to turn around, sit up, smooth and clean her Enertherm-BKCP jersey and celebrate her overall lead.

Jessica Lambracht (20) of STEVENS Racing Team started from third row and finished 19th. „It has been my best World Cup result so far. For some time I was riding in 14th position, but at the end I could not push hard enough through the mudd and lost some ground. But I am happy after all“, the German Champion said after the race.
You can watch the race on the UCI's Youtube channel

Daan Hoeyberghs finishes second in U23 category
In the men's U23 category Daan Hoeyberghs only had to surrender to Eli Iserbyt. Daan Soete, from Belgium as well, finished third. The course with lots of running passages did not suit Yannic Gruner of STEVENS Racing Team, but considering this, his 24th place despite a „mediocre start“ (Gruner) is a very satisfying result. Gruner said after the race: „I could gain ground every round until I rode on 19th position, but on the last round I crashed and was passed through again.“ The German U23 Vice Champion said, that he was making progress in terms of riding skills and constitution, however. Max and Paul Lindenau finished 28th and 30th.